The Continental Hotel's administration office

In addition to serving as a base for the Continental Hotel, Henry's Black Clinic did not obligate him to report patients' whereabouts, but he did not object to earning some extra money.

From the hotel's perspective, aside from the person they're offering Gold Coin to request services from, who needs to be kept confidential, everyone else is open to betrayal.

Don't assume that criminal organizations like theirs are particularly ethical. Their loyalty to their brothers is just lip service; putting a price tag on their integrity is their daily practice.

So although he was involved, Henry maintained an attitude of detachment, ready to withdraw at any time.

But you also need to mislead others, making them think you're deeply involved in the Continental Hotel system. Otherwise, why would they give Henry free money?

To achieve this, one can only rely on acting skills.

Since it wasn't rush hour, traffic in the city center was relatively smooth. Henry soon turned into the parking lot near the Continental Hotel, parked his car, and walked into the hotel through a side entrance.

There were no concierges at the side door, nor did it connect to the lobby; instead, it led directly to the management office in the basement. This area was bustling with activity, housing functions such as intelligence gathering and trading, and mission bounty lists.

But for the hotel's contracted gunmen, all it takes is one Gold Coin, and someone will naturally run errands for you, selecting suitable tasks and collecting corresponding information.

However, like most newbies or poor guys, Henry went to the basement himself and dealt with the hotel staff. He sat down in front of a beautiful woman wearing a light gray business suit.

What If...? you ignored her short, purple-dyed hair, nose ring, black lipstick, and the exposed top of her shirt with a few buttons undone,

With extensive tattoos extending all the way to his cheeks, one might mistake him for an elite individual who graduated from a prestigious university and works on Wall Street.

But if you look at her overall appearance, you'd think she's some reformed young woman who still has some lingering connection to her ex- Yellow Hair.

"Hi, Lina, your look is as unique as ever today. But this perfume—it's citrus, which is unfamiliar." Henry greeted the girl in front of him while handing her the intelligence information he had prepared.

"This is my grandmother's family secret recipe. Besides its natural and delicate fragrance, it also has skin-nourishing effects. I don't usually tell just anyone about it."

The little girl had Native American ancestry, and there were many such traditional remedies passed down from her ancestors. Henry even suspected that her ancestors might have had a lineage of witch doctors or sorcerers. These kinds of things came in many forms.

However, Henry didn't try to pry into her secrets. Instead, he praised her, saying, "I knew it. Most girls' hands are rough and calloused. To keep them well-maintained, you have to be the kind of girl who doesn't do any work and is pampered at home."

"Unlike you, so hardworking and capable, you can even keep your hands as delicate as a baby's. Look at them, they're almost as smooth as milk."

Henry readily took the hand with its red nail polish, rubbing the pads of each finger together and playing with them carefully.

Lina didn't resist the behavior, but she also didn't let Henry take advantage of her. Instead, at the perfect moment, she quickly slapped away the Kryptonian's mischievous hand, saying, "You think touching my hand is enough? I would have called you already."

"Hehe, you have boyfriend, right? Not ruining other people's relationships is my life principle. Because I'm afraid of being resented by too many people." After bragging, Henry quickly changed the subject, saying, "Help me see how much money I can get this time."

"Even if you don't physically cause damage, you'll still be resented, you know?" Lina rolled her eyes, then put on her thin-rimmed glasses and switched to work mode.

While reading the intelligence Henry had brought, he rapidly typed on the computer keyboard.

On the large, bulky CRT screen, there was a classic black background with green text. Similar to banking systems, and predating the early days of personal computers, Continental Hotel established database systems and indexes very early on, and provided terminals for multiple users to use together.

Early computer operation was difficult, and all instructions had to be memorized. Being able to use these systems flexibly, even though they were only established a few years ago and are considered ancient in the IT industry, required a lot of hard work from the girls at the counter.

However, once you become proficient, a database system with powerful indexing capabilities can be a significant asset.

At least with the information Henry provided, the girls didn't have to painstakingly search through paper documents by alphabetical index and then verify the contents. And that was at least three days a week.

Enter the search keywords by name, and all relevant content in the database will appear on the screen as entries.

If there are too many duplicate names, add the second and third criteria to filter out irrelevant content. If necessary, manually delete further entries.

According to the rules, it is necessary to verify the new intelligence content against the existing intelligence in the database to determine the approximate overlap rate, and then use this information to determine the reward amount.

However, reading and subjective judgment can easily become points of contention. Therefore, in practice, the girls in the intelligence department determine the price of an intelligence report based on the number of items that are ultimately selected.

A single screen can display ten intelligence items. What If...? the filtered content is empty, then that intelligence item is the maximum of ten.

For each additional entry, the reward amount decreases by one. If the amount of relevant intelligence is too large to be displayed on one page, then only the minimum reward of one intelligence fee will be given.

This method of judgment is easy for anyone who can count to understand, and it reduces a lot of disputes. But in reality, there is still room for manipulation behind the scenes.

Simply put, how you choose keywords and what conditions you set will affect the number of intelligence entries displayed in the end.

This is why Henry wanted to befriend these girls.

Whether others know it or not, that's their problem.

As Lina verified the information, she picked up a red pen and annotated the bounty amount on the intelligence document. After checking all the documents, she took off her glasses and said, "Your bounty today is twenty-three. Would you like change or a larger bill?"

"Give me a whole bill. I need to restock some medicine and supplies; small change isn't very convenient."

Although Henry promised that the Black Clinic wouldn't sell medicine, what everyone was really implying was that medical drugs like antibiotics were still needed.

"Please wait a moment." Lina smiled rather formally, while rolling up the paper document and placing it into a cylinder. Then she inserted the entire cylinder into the pneumatic transmission line behind her.

With a "whoosh," the new intelligence was delivered to the archives room, which was responsible for inputting and storing paper documents. There were more people there handling the related matters.

Lina, who was in charge of the front desk, took out the full amount of cash from the cash register, counted it, and placed it on the tray in front of Henry.